Qantas has been given permission to start testing in-flight mobile phone use, though for now usage will be restricted to data only and on just one aircraft.

According to CNet, lucky passengers on the selected Boeing 767, flying between Australian cities over the next three months, will be able to send and receive 160-character missives as well as access GPRS services for email and the like. They'll need to have international roaming enabled, as the aircraft will be operating as a roamed-to network (with associated cost).

Customers won't be able to make voice calls on the service, which will be a relief for their neighbours. Connections are routed from the plane over a satellite connection, which leads to the inevitable latency that few phone users are familiar with these days. ®

Related stories

• NASA seeks inflight comms for sky marshals (23 July 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/07/23/hello_youre_through_to_the_sky_marshal/

• Latent problems with people, not networks (10 May 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/05/10/latent_humans/

• Defective automatic trousers hurl pilot from plane (26 April 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/26/wallace_joins_the_swedish_airforce/

• Germany moots higher EU roaming caps (24 April 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/24/roaming/

• Qantas jet almost rammed by sky-hog glider pilot (13 April 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/13/who_was_the_mystery_birdman/

• IPPR wants health warnings for planes (5 April 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/05/plane_health/

• Phones on a Plane: FCC still says no (4 April 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/04/04/fcc_continues_cellphone_aircraft_ban/

• Airbus falls to first ever loss (9 March 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/03/09/airbus_first_loss/